


like young love still waiting under mistletoe

by expectopatronuz



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, it's really just a fluffy silly Christmas fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:00:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26017690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/expectopatronuz/pseuds/expectopatronuz
Summary: “We need a tree,” Luke pouts. They’re eating in the living room, watching some sort of reality talent competition show because Luke’s mum likes it. The commercials are getting to Luke – they’re all the same, a family around a fully staged dining table, festive piano music playing, some sort of sentimentalbe with the ones you lovemessage.or, Luke and Calum search for the perfect Christmas tree
Relationships: Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood, Side Michael Clifford/Ashton Irwin, like really side, like they're barely in it
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	like young love still waiting under mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> this fic started out as a cake prompt from [bella's](https://clumsyclifford.tumblr.com/) spidey anon: "You are/he is the embodiment of actual sunshine." i ended up writing way more than i normally would for a prompt, so i'm posting it here! i don't know why i suddenly felt the burning desire to write a christmas fic, but at least i'm writing, right? thank you to [em](https://pixiegrl.tumblr.com/) for letting me yell about this fic for ages!
> 
> title is from [snow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLKmcSuMeCI) by sleeping at last because i was listening to it on repeat while i wrote. i strongly recommend it for the right atmosphere

Despite being the only one with a family member present, Luke is by far the most determined to make Christmas in London as festive as possible.

Maybe it’s _because_ he’s the only one with a family member present. Calum knows that Luke would fall apart without his mum around, and he might feel bad that the other three don’t have that safety blanket.

He shouldn’t feel bad, because Calum is much more excited about song writing with big London songwriters than he’s ever been about Christmas, and he knows that Ashton and Michael feel the same. He doesn’t say anything though, because it’s actually pretty fucking cute.

“We need a tree,” Luke pouts. They’re eating in the living room, watching some sort of reality talent competition show because Luke’s mum likes it. The commercials are getting to Luke – they’re all the same, a family around a fully staged dining table, festive piano music playing, some sort of sentimental _be with the ones you love_ message. Ashton and Michael exchange an amused glace, but Calum glares at them before they can make any snarky comments.

“We don’t have any decorations for a tree here, Luke,” Liz says, gently.

“We can make popcorn strings like in old films, or even paper chains,” Luke says. When no one says anything, he huffs. “Come on, we _need_ a tree. It doesn’t have to be a big tree.”

“If you can find a tree small enough to decorate, sure.”

Luke’s eyes brighten and he looks between Calum, Ashton, and Michael hopefully.

“No,” Michael says, because of course he does. “I don’t want to go wandering out in the cold, probably to seven different tree farms because you’ll need to find the most perfect one.”

“I won’t—”

“You will,” Michael interrupts. “And you know it.”

Luke turns to Ashton, because Michael is right. “Sorry, Luke,” Ashton says. “I’m with Michael.”

“But it’s Christmas!” Luke says.

“You know I’m not built for the cold,” Ashton says. At least he has the decency to sound regretful, unlike Michael.

“Don’t either of you _care_? We’re all the way in London and you just want to pretend that Christmas isn’t happening?”

Michael shrugs, takes a bite of casserole, and pulls the fork from his lips slowly. Ashton gets distracted watching.

“I’ll go with you,” Calum says. He was always going to, so he doesn’t know why Luke didn’t start with him.

“Really?” Luke asks. He lights up head to toe, and Calum kind of wishes that he had sunglasses.

“Yeah, I mean, it sounds fun. We can make a bit of an adventure out of it.”

“Let’s go tomorrow!” Luke says. It’s Ashton and Michael’s day to write anyways, so they might as well.

“Sure,” Calum says. 

“Don’t let him pick something too big,” Luke’s mum says. She gives Calum a knowing smile that makes him want to fidget.

“Don’t worry,” Luke says. The show goes to commercials and he glues his eyes to the screen. “Calum always keeps me under control.”

Calum sends another glare Michael and Ashton’s way before they can even look at each other. It doesn’t stop Michael’s poorly disguised snort.

Calum wakes up to a body in bed behind him. It could be any of the boys, because they’re all needy, Calum included. Based on the tight grip to his wrist and the lankiness, he’s pretty sure that it’s Luke.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” Luke says, confirming Calum’s speculation.

Ashton groans from the other bed. “Go back to your room, Luke.”

“No,” Luke says.

“If it’s too early for me to be up, it’s too early for you to be up,” Ashton huffs.

“You have no imagination. If I’m in here, Michael is alone in the other room. Don’t you want to take advantage?”

“Your mum will get mad at us again,” Ashton says. That’s probably true – when they arrived at the house and Ashton and Michael had automatically gone to pick a room to share, she’d pulled them both back by the collars with a firm _I don’t think so_. They each manage to sneak into the other’s room sometimes, but she always ends up catching them.

“Doesn’t matter,” Luke says. “We’re leaving right away.”

“We are?” Calum asks, groggily.

“Yes! It’s Christmas tree adventure day!”

Calum rolls onto his back and Luke shuffles over to make room. Luke’s already fully dressed, including a knit hat and a scarf.

“Christmas tree adventure day needs to start this early?”

“Yes!” Luke pulls out a sheet of paper and unfolds it. “I’ve made a list! We have seven places to check, plus two surprises along the way.”

Calum takes the list and looks it over. It’s names of tree vendors with addresses – Calum is pleased to see that they’re all reasonably close. In between tree places 3 and 4 and 6 and 7, Luke has written _surprise :)_.

“So?” Luke asks. Ashton mumbles something across the room, but Calum can’t make it out. “Can we go?”

“Yeah, just let me get dressed.”

They’re out the door within twenty minutes, bundled up in a way that immediate betrays that they’re not locals. It’s sunny, and it’s not even that cold, but Calum knows he’ll regret it if he doesn’t take every precaution.

“So,” Luke says. Their mitten-clad hands brush as they walk, and Luke pulls his in front of his body. “I organized the stops in a circle, so we don’t have any stretches between that are too far. I figure that if we really like a tree at one of the first few places, we can ask them to hold it for us until we finish our circuit.”

“Do they do that at tree places?”

“I think they will if we ask,” Luke says. He’s probably right. Luke has a brightness to him that makes people very unwilling to let him down. If he goes up to a tree vendor with his big, excited eyes and wide, bright smile, they’d have a very hard time saying no.

“Are any of these places indoors?” Calum asks hopefully. He’s mostly protected from the wind, but his cheeks will get cold fast and the day could get very long.

“No,” Luke says. “Not the tree parts. Some of them have indoor decoration displays. And there are the surprises,” he turns to smile at Calum and nearly trips over his own feet. Calum steadies him with a hand to the shoulder.

“Be careful, you giraffe.”

“I don’t think it’s the long legs,” Luke says. “I think it’s just that I’m the clumsiest person in the world.”

“Could be a bit of both,” Calum says. “So, I suppose you’ll be wanting to go through the indoor decoration displays?”

“Obviously,” Luke says. “It’s a chance to warm up. And they looked magical online.”

“How late were you up last night?” Calum asks. “This much have taken a lot of time to prepare.”

“Not that late,” Luke says shiftily.

“I could just ask Michael,” Calum says.

“He went to bed before me, he won’t know.”

“So, you went to bed very, very late, is what you’re telling me.”

Luke smiles sheepishly, but at least he keeps his eyes ahead this time.

The first place is in the parking lot of a hardware store, and it does not look promising.

Luke catches Calum’s dubious look before he can school his face into something more neutral. “It’s the first place,” Luke says. “I wasn’t going to start on a high.”

“They all look the same,” Calum gestures to the rows of trees, pre-wrapped and ready to be taken home. “And they’re all big.”

“It’s worth a look!” Luke says. He takes Calum’s wrist in his hand, stiff because of the mitten, and drags him down the first row. “Doesn’t it just smell like Christmas? This place is worth the visit on the scent alone.”

“I always had a fake tree growing up,” Calum says.

“What? That is unacceptable. I will be having words with your parents when you Skype them on Sunday.”

“Real trees are messy,” Calum points out. “They don’t last as long.”

“They do if you take care of them!” Luke says.

“Maybe,” Calum says.

“I can’t believe this will be your first tree and it’s going to be a stupid tiny one.”

“Hey,” Calum says. “That is our future tree child you’re talking about. Don’t be rude.”

Luke shakes his head and laughs. “You’re already attached, and we haven’t even found one yet.”

“You know you’re going to get attached too. Don’t act like you won’t.”

“You’re right,” Luke says. He pauses to smile at Calum, then looks down the last row of trees. “You were also right about all the trees being the same here,” he adds, a bit sadly.

Calum watches as he looks longingly at a tall tree with a beautiful peak, perfect for a star. “Hey,” Calum nudges his shoulder. “Next place?”

“Next place,” Luke echoes, and leads him away.

The second place does not look promising on the opposite end of the scale.

It’s a high-end garden store, the kind of place that rich homebodies visit to get their seed starters and houseplants. They have to enter the outdoor area through the inside of the store, and Calum feels a bit shell shocked.

“Luke—” he says. Luke turns back to look at him with bright eyes.

“I know, right?”

The store is full of trees. There are more trees decorated than Calum has ever seen in one place. Each tree has a unique theme or colour. There’s a tree with only red decorations next to a tree with only blue decorations. There’s a tree with only decorations that are shaped like dogs and another with only penguins and polar bears. Luke lingers at this one for a moment.

“Is this your dream tree?” Calum asks.

“No,” Luke says, but he lifts an igloo ornament gently and lovingly. “You know how my family tree, it’s all decorations that mean something? Like, every ornament has a story. No bulk baubles, just a mess of special ones, with no cohesion?”

“That’s what you want?”

Luke nods. “I’ll be able to take some of the ones from home – ones that I picked out on vacations and some of the ones I made as crafts in school. The rest, I’ll have to slowly build up.”

Luke gently settles the igloo back against the tree and leads Calum to the outdoor area. They find the small trees right away, but they are very significantly out of their price range.

Luke sighs. “I saw the prices online, but I just had to check this place out for myself.”

“It’s beautiful,” Calum replies honestly. The are tall wooden fences surrounding the area and the trees aren’t pre-wrapped like at the first place. They’re standing tall on display, and each one is full and proud. There are fairy lights strung around the trees but also up over them, across the entire garden. Calum wishes that it were dark, because he thinks it would truly feel magical.

“People come here to take engagement and wedding pictures at night,” Luke says. He stands and leads Calum back through the store.

“I can see why. I can only imagine how perfect it looks.”

“We should come back before Christmas,” Luke says. “In the evening, before they close.”

“That’s a good idea. I’m sure we can drag Michael and Ashton out for a bit, it would make a perfect band Instagram post.”

“Yeah,” Luke says, but he’s distracted trying to make his way out of the store.

The sky has completely clouded over by the time they’re on their way to the third tree spot. The wind has also started to pick up, and Calum is grateful that he bothered with a scarf. They don’t talk much as they walk, because they’re getting pretty cold.

“Does the third place have an inside?” Calum asks. It’s a little muffled by his mittens because he has his hands up to hide as much of his face from the chill as possible.

“No,” Luke says regretfully. “But right afterwards is the first surprise, and that’s inside.”

Calum hopes that the surprise involves food, because it’s starting to be near lunchtime, and he hadn’t thought to worry about that.

They arrive at the third place – it’s another parking lot tree vendor, but this one seems much more varied that the first place. There are also tall fences that promise to offer some relief from the wind.

“Go, go,” Calum says, and sets off into a light jog. Luke rushes to keep up, but the burst of speed does help to warm them up a little.

They find the section with smaller trees quickly, but Calum can tell that Luke is unimpressed.

“This one is cute,” Calum says. The sign even calls it a _Charlie Brown_ tree, but Calum likes that about it. It has character.

“Maybe,” Luke says. “We can come back if we don’t like any others.”

“We should put it on hold,” Calum says. He doesn’t know why he’s suddenly so attached to the scrappy little thing, but he wants to bring it home.

“I don’t think we need to put it on hold,” Luke says.

“But what if someone else comes and takes him?”

“ _Him_?” Luke says, amused.

“Yes, it’s a him, and his name is Snoopy.”

“I think Snoopy will be safe.”

“But—”

“Do you want to go to the first surprise location and warm up? Or do you want to stay here with the saddest tree I’ve ever seen?”

“Alright,” Calum says. He mentally promises Snoopy that he’ll be back for him and follows Luke back out into the wind.

The first surprise location is a tiny, independent café. Calum looks over the menu quickly and is relieved to see that they serve sandwiches.

“Look,” Luke says. He pulls of his mittens and shoves them into his pockets to point at the special’s menu. “They have festive drinks, but they’re not as expensive as the Starbucks ones.”

“They look really good,” Calum says. As he takes off his own mittens, he looks around – the line isn’t crazy long, but the café is not large. “What do you want? I’ll get our stuff if you go save us a table.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Calum says.

“Okay, get me a peppermint mocha and a ham and cheese sandwich,” Luke says, then goes to claim a table for two in the corner, by the window.

Calum waits and orders for Luke, as well as a white chocolate mocha and a chicken sandwich for himself.

He brings their things over to Luke and Luke makes grabby hands for the drink. He takes a sip and moans appreciatively.

“This is even better than Starbucks,” Luke says. Calum watches fondly as he takes another sip. “Try yours!”

Calum takes a sip. “You’re right, this is incredible.”

“Trade, trade!” Luke says. “I want to try yours!”

“Alright,” Calum laughs. He slides his drink over and takes Luke’s – it’s good, but he prefers his.

“This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life,” Luke says. He takes another sip of Calum’s drink.

“Keep that one,” Calum says. “I like the peppermint.”

“Are you sure?” Luke asks, eyes wide. Like Calum would ever say no to him in his life.

“Yeah,” Calum says. He takes another appreciative sip of the peppermint mocha to prove it. Convinced, Luke starts to dig into his sandwich. “Do you think it’ll warm up out there at all by the time we’re done?”

“Yeah,” Luke says, though Calum has no idea how he would know or why he’d even asked. “Afternoon is always warmer than morning. We’ve just got to take our time in here.”

“I won’t complain about that,” Calum says. The café is decorated for Christmas, with garland strung across every flat surface and giant baubles hanging from the ceiling. They even have a tree up in the corner. It’s decorated with sparkly snowflakes and fake icicles, and Calum is pretty sure that it’s an artificial tree, but he doesn’t mention that to Luke. “How did you find this place?”

“A lot of research,” Luke grins.

“I can’t believe you planned all of this out,” Calum says.

“If you like this, wait until you see the second surprise,” Luke laughs.

“Really,” Calum says. “This must have taken a lot of time.”

“I wanted it to be a good day,” Luke shrugs. “I know you and the others aren’t as into Christmas as I am, so I didn’t want you to regret agreeing to come.”

“I would never,” Calum says. “Spending time with you makes it worth it.”

Luke goes a little flushed and looks down at his drink. “You wouldn’t have said that if we were just walking around aimlessly, hoping to stumble upon a perfect tree.”

“I would so,” Calum promises. Luke shakes his head but looks back up and smiles.

“What do you think Ashton and Michael are doing right now? They should be on lunch break at the studio.”

“Making out in a coat closet?” Calum suggests. Luke laughs.

“Making out under the control board?”

“Making out in the sound booth?”

“Making out behind a tree?”

“They’d never,” Calum says. “Ashton is a baby about the cold.”

“True, and Michael is a baby about the outside.”

“It’s definitely the control board one,” Calum says. Luke lights up when he laughs, and Calum wants to capture it and keep it to brighten the dark English nights.

The wind has gone down a bit by the time they’re on their way to the fourth tree spot.

This one is a massive yard store with trees lined up along the sides of the building, but there are no small ones.

“Luke, none of these are the right size—”

“They have smaller plants inside, I looked online,” Luke says. Calum has never been so endeared in his life.

The walk through aisle after aisle until at the very end of the store, they finally find a cluster of small house plants. They do have Christmas trees, but they’re tiny – the biggest one is maybe 10 inches tall.

Luke picks one up and strokes the pines gently. “I was hoping for something a little bigger.”

“We have three more stops,” Calum reminds him.

“They’re just so cute,” Luke says. He holds out the tree and Calum takes it. “Cuter than Snoopy.”

“Hey,” Calum says. “I love Snoopy. He’s still our best choice.”

“We should name all of the options after _Peanuts_ characters,” Luke says. “This one can be Woodstock.”

“Honestly, those and Charlie Brown are the only _Peanuts_ characters that I know.”

“Me too,” Luke admits without guilt. “I figured you might know more of them.”

“Why would you think that?”

“You’re more of a comics guy than I am.”

“Maybe like, superhero comics. I don’t read the Sunday cartoons. I don’t think we even get the newspaper back home.”

“I think you probably do,” Luke says. “You just don’t read it.” Luke holds his hand out and Calum gives Woodstock back to him. “As much as I love this little guy, he’s not what we’re looking for.”

“So Snoopy is still in the running?”

“No,” Luke laughs. “Snoopy is vetoed. We’re going to find the perfect tree.”

“Snoopy could be the perfect tree if you would just open your heart—”

“You need a dog,” Luke says. “You’re far too attached to the idea of a scrappy little tree.”

“Can I get that in writing? I’ll send it to my parents.”

The fifth tree place is the furthest of any of them, and the walk is long. It’s warmed up more now though, so Calum doesn’t mind. He thinks about taking Luke’s hand and wonders if that would be weird. Luke holds hands with everyone, Luke’s held Calum’s hand before. But Luke always initiates it because Luke is the cuddliest of them all.

“What are you getting Michael for Christmas?” Luke asks, breaking Calum out of his thoughts.

“I’m not telling you, you’ll just snipe my idea,” Calum says. It’s not like it’s even a ground-breaking gift – Calum had ordered a set of guitar picks with bad jokes on them. He knows that Michael will laugh, though.

“Maybe I just want to make sure we’re not getting him the same thing.”

“Liar,” Calum says, and Luke grins.

“Help me out, I’m so useless at gift giving.”

“No.”

“But he’s your best friend! You have to have something!”

“You’re my best friend,” Calum says, to change the subject.

“Really?” Luke says. Calum can’t help but laugh at Luke for falling for it so easily. “Fine. I get it.”

“No, really, you are,” Calum says. “You’re all tied. I love you all equally.”

“Well, I don’t love you equally. I love you the least.”

“I don’t believe you,” Calum says. Luke folds immediately, because he always does.

“You’re right. I love you the best,” Luke smiles.

“Because I’m the only one who would come tree shopping?”

“Among other reasons.”

“Like what?” Calum asks.

“Nope, you won’t help me with Michael’s present. You don’t get to know.”

“But I thought you loved me best,” Calum says. Luke looks at him, laugh on his lips and sunlight in his eyes, and Calum takes Luke’s hand. Luke looks ahead, but his grin widens.

The fifth place is one of the seasonal stores that only pop up in December. It’s massive, which makes sense because it’s the closest to the city centre they’ve come. It has rows and rows of full-sized trees, but not just the Nordman Firs like the other places.

Luke is staring, fascinated down the rows of diverse trees.

“Do you want to go take a look?” Calum asks. Luke grins and nods. They walk through, and with every new type of tree they come upon, Luke declares it the best kind. Calum isn’t really sure that he can tell the difference between most of them, but they stumble upon the Douglas Firs and Calum hesitates.

“You like these ones?” Luke asks.

“They’re nice,” Calum says. “Majestic, you know?”

“Yeah,” Luke says. “I think they’re my favourites.”

Calum grins, because Luke has said the same about the past 4 tree types. “When I have my own place, I want one of these.”

“Really?” Luke asks. “You want a real tree?”

“I don’t know, I guess I do,” Calum says. He’s never really thought about it before, but it means so much to Luke, so he’s willing to try.

“Good,” Luke says. “That’s the right choice.”

They finally find the smaller trees, and they’re immediately overwhelmed with choice. There are actual rows of the little trees, and they’re all beautifully full and green.

“Still want to go back for Snoopy?” Luke asks.

“Kind of,” Calum says. They have a long walk back and he’s not sure he wants to carry a tree that far, but this is the only place that’s had what they’re looking for.

“What do you think of this one?” Luke points to a tree stretching a little taller than most of the others. It’s thinner, but that would make it easier to decorate.

“It’s nice,” Calum says.

Luke groans. “I don’t want the _Charlie Brown_ tree, Cal.”

“I know,” Calum says. “It’s just – it kind of lacks personality. Why don’t we come back if we don’t find anything at the other places?”

“What if they’re all gone, though?”

“There are like 50 of them. They won’t be all gone.”

“Fine,” Luke pouts. “But just because I’m invested in the second surprise and I don’t want to have to bring a tree to it.”

The sixth place seems to be a grocery store with a very small garden section. They realize quickly that there’s nothing that works for them, and Luke starts leading Calum excitedly towards the second surprise.

“Is this more for me or for you?” Calum asks. Luke takes Calum’s hand, though it feels a little weird through their mittens.

“It’s for both of us!” Luke says. “But I will probably like it more.”

Approaching, Calum doesn’t feel too confident. They get nearer and nearer to what appears to be a community centre, but the paring lot is rather full, which is promising.

Luke pulls him by the hand, giddy, so Calum is staring at him when they get into a massive craft fair. Luke’s eyes are wide with wonder, he’s grinning like he’s never seen anything so magical. Calum doesn’t know if he’s right, because he can’t tear his eyes away from Luke to see.

“You are the embodiment of actual sunshine,” Calum says. The words leave his mouth before he can examine them, but he doesn’t regret it. Luke turns to him and smiles impossibly wider.

“You think so?”

“Of course,” Calum says. Luke looks at him for a moment longer, but finally pulls his hand away to take off his mittens. Calum does the same, and as soon as his hands are free, Luke is reaching back out, intertwining their fingers.

They walk up and down the stalls, stopping to look at the different vendors. They have everything – fancy French pies and quilted oven mitts and hand-knit scarves and customized wooden cooking tools and homemade jams. Calum’s never been to one of these, but he feels a rush of nostalgia anyways.

They finally come upon a table full of tree decorations and Luke pulls Calum over. He looks over the table and spots one that he likes, reaches for a small toy truck customized with little painted fairy lights and tiny strands of garland. On top, there’s a tiny little plastic Christmas tree, like a family is taking it home.

“You know how I was telling you that I want my tree to be full of special ornaments? How I want each of them to have a story?”

“Yeah,” Calum says.

“I want one from today. I want today to be a story on our tree forever,” Luke smiles down at the little truck, then holds it out for the vendor to wrap up.

“Our tree?”

“What?” Luke asks, he hands over some cash and takes the little bag.

“You said _our tree_.”

Luke blushes.” My tree. I meant to say _my tree_.” They continue to walk through the aisle, but Luke doesn’t reach for Calum’s hand again.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Calum says. “Like, if there was an _our tree_.”

Luke grins. “Let’s go to the last place.”

“But we haven’t looked through everything here.”

“I know,” Luke says. “But I want you to see the last place.”

They spent long enough in the craft fair that’s it’s dark when they step outside. It’s England, so it’s not even dinner time yet. Usually it’s jarring, but today it feels kind of perfect.

The walk is a bit longer, because the last place is close to the house they’re staying in. They hold their mitten-clad hands and they talk about their family traditions. Luke gets unreasonably excited when he finds out that Christmas Eve is the important day in Calum’s family, while Christmas Day is more important for Luke’s.

They arrive at a small cottage-style building with a fence surrounding it. There are fairy lights on the fence and a couple of lanterns throughout to see. There are tall trees, and there are shrubs. There is one small tree, and it’s absolutely perfect.

“I love him,” Calum says. The tree is full and healthy, but it’s leaning slightly to the side, which gives it character.

“Me too,” Luke says. “Let’s name him Snoopy 2.”

Calum picks it up and brings it over to the cottage with Luke following behind him. He climbs the steps and gets under the awning. He balances the tree in his right hand to open the door, but Luke leaps forward to grab his arm.

“Wait—” Luke says.

“What? You don’t want him?”

“No, I do – I just—” Luke pauses. His cheeks are flushes, and Calum begins to wonder if it’s not from the cold.

“What?” Calum asks, softer. Luke smiles, small and cautious, and looks up to the awning. Calum follows his eyes and notices the sprig of mistletoe, hanging above them. He looks back down at Luke, who’s keeping his eyes up, bashful. “Did you know about that?”

Luke nods. “On the website, it said couples like to come here for pictures, because the cottage style is so charming.”

“We don’t have anyone to take a picture for us,” Calum says. He puts the tree down by his feet, and when he straightens, Luke is looking at him.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it for the picture, to be honest.”

“Then what were you thinking about it for?”

“I like you,” Luke says. “I love you, I think,” Luke hesitates, then shakes his head. “No, I know that I love you, I’m just trying to play it cool. I don’t know why, because you already know I’m not cool. But I love you, and I’d like it if you would kiss me.”

Calum can’t keep his lips from stretching into a wide smile. “Luke, I think you might be the most wonderful person I’ve ever met.”

“Does that mean you’ll kiss me?”

Calum doesn’t answer, he just gets one hand on Luke’s neck and the other on his waist and pulls him in. When their lips meet, Calum feels warmer than he has all day, even though their teeth clank together because they can’t keep themselves from grinning.

Luke pulls away after a moment, smiling his sunshine smile. “Let’s go get the tree,” he says, then reaches down to grab it.

“Wait,” Calum catches Luke’s hand and pulls him back up. “I love you too.”

“I figured that, when you kissed me.”

“You’re a menace,” Calum says. “You’re lucky you’re so adorable.”

“I really am, aren’t I?”


End file.
